Business Freedom Grant

1. Project Background, Goals, and Objectives The Public Diplomacy Section invites proposals for programs that support one of the following U.S. Embassy priority program areas listed below. Applicants are strongly encouraged to propose collaborative approaches and programs that integrate multiple priority areas. Priority Program Areas/Goals: Applicants may submit a proposal to address one of the program goals below. Proposals should focus on one or more of the priority outcomes, but applicants may also recommend their own objective. Priority Program Areas: · Commercial Diplomacy and U.S.-Zimbabwe Trade · Artificial Intelligence for improved prosperity · Cybersecurity · Technology Literacy and Resilience · Free Speech · American Excellence in education, media, sports, creative industries, civil society GOAL 1. FREE SPEECH AND OPEN EXPRESSION Promote democratic principles including freedom of speech and civic participation; particularly if they share best practices for citizen advocacy or explore the challenges modern media houses face in a digital economy and the ethical standards needed to gain public confidence. Project Audience(s): Organizations and individuals that reflect American values, policies and priorities Priority Outcomes(s): Applicants may focus on one or more of the outcomes listed below. Applicants are encouraged to propose additional objectives and innovative activities that address the priority program areas. Outcome: A more informed and media-literate Zimbabwean public that can identify and resist disinformation, with stronger independent media institutions operating transparently and ethically. Strengthening independent media in Zimbabwe advances U.S. strategic interests in promoting open, stable societies across Africa. GOAL 2. ADVANCE U.S.- ZIMBABWE COMMERCIAL TIES AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY Advance economic prosperity; particularly connecting social entrepreneurs and the creative community with online marketing tools. Project Audience(s): Organizations and individuals that reflect American values, policies, and priorities Priority Outcomes(s): Applicants may focus on one or more of the outcomes listed below. Applicants are encouraged to propose additional objectives and innovative activities that address the priority program areas. Outcome: Increased bilateral trade activity, expanded market access for U.S. goods and services, and a growing cohort of Zimbabwean entrepreneurs with direct ties to U.S. businesses and platforms. Deepening commercial relationships with Zimbabwe creates new markets for American exports, strengthens U.S. economic influence in the region, and reduces Zimbabwe's economic dependence on adversarial partners. This directly supports the America First economic agenda and commercial diplomacy priorities. GOAL 3. HARNESS EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR DEVELOPMENT Empower Zimbabweans to leverage American innovations in technology, AI, and digital tools, to drive economic growth, improve livelihoods, and improve digital trade opportunities between the United States and Zimbabwe. Project Audience(s): Organizations and individuals that reflect American values, policies, and priorities. Priority Outcomes(s): Applicants may focus on one or more of the outcomes listed below. Applicants are encouraged to propose additional objectives and innovative activities that address the priority program areas. Outcome: A growing base of Zimbabwean professionals and institutions equipped to adopt, adapt, and deploy emerging American technologies - including AI - for economic and social development, using U.S.-developed platforms and frameworks. Promoting U.S.-developed technology standards and platforms in Zimbabwe expands American technological influence and market share, and builds a digital ecosystem aligned with U.S. values of openness, security, and innovation. GOAL 4. EXPAND U.S.-ZIMBABWE PROFESSIONAL NETWORKS AND PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE TIES Deepen bilateral relationships through targeted workshops, alumni engagement, and exchange partnerships that advance shared solutions and reinforce American values and influence. Project Audience(s): Organizations and individuals that reflect American values, policies, and priorities. Priority Outcomes(s): Applicants may focus on one or more of the outcomes listed below. Applicants are encouraged to propose additional objectives and innovative activities that address the priority program areas. Outcome: Strengthened alumni networks and new professional cohorts with sustained engagement with U.S. counterparts, resulting in collaborative projects, cross-sector partnerships, and ongoing people-to-people dialogue. Strong professional networks create durable channels of U.S. influence and goodwill in Zimbabwe. Alumni of U.S. exchange programs consistently demonstrate greater alignment with U.S. foreign policy interests and serve as credible advocates for American businesses, institutions, and values within their professional and social communities. Funding Opportunity Number: AF-HAR-FY26-03. Assistance Listing: 19.040. Funding Instrument: CA. Category: O. Award Amount: $10K – $15K per award.

Building capacity to deploy the EEHRxF and digital health services and systems to support the rights of citizens and reuse of health data under EHDS is sponsored by European Commission — Digital Europe Programme. Expected Outcome: Expected outcomes and deliverables are: Work strand 1: Guidance for public authorities and healthcare providers to deploy, upgrade and operate digital health services and systems that support the rights of citizens and fulfil their obligations under the EHDS. Maintenance and expansion of a community of public authorities and healthcare providers based on common guidance for services and systems aligned with the objectives of the EHDS. The community should build upon one or more existing communities. Large-scale deployment of and/or capacity building for digital health services and systems that support the EEHRxF and the rights of citizens included in the EHDS. Work strand 2: A toolbox for data holders to support dataset description, data quality and utility labelling, and secondary use readiness in alignment with the EHDS. Establishment or expansion of existing community of data holders with the objective of supporting peer exchange, reuse of good practices and alignment of approaches for the creation and maintenance of dataset descriptions and data quality and utility labels for secondary use under the EHDS. Creation of dataset descriptions and data quality and utility labelling by data holders, such as public authorities and healthcare providers. Integration of datasets descriptions in the datasets catalogues of health data access bodies. Support to data holders in putting in place the organisational and technical arrangements required to make electronic health data available for secondary use under the EHDS, in line with applicable safeguards. Work strand 3: A training framework and training sessions to prepare service providers to support public authorities, healthcare providers and data holders in the implementation of the EHDS as described above, complementing and aligning with the work of the EEHRxF Support Centre, i2X Capacity Building for Secondary Use [1], and QUANTUM [2] . A business model, including the uptake strategy, for service providers that can support the adoption of the EEHRxF, the uptake of services and systems compatible with the EHDS and the creation and maintenance of dataset descriptions and data quality and utility labels. A community of trained service providers trained to support public authorities, healthcare providers and data holders in fulfilling requirements of the EHDS. 1 - https://hadea.ec.europa.eu/calls-tenders/capacity-building-secondary-uses-health-data-european-health-data-space_en 2 - https://quantumproject.eu/ Objective: Regulation (EU) 2025/327 of the European Parliament and of the Council (‘The European Health Data Space (EHDS) Regulation’) [1] reinforces the rights for citizens to access and control their personal electronic health data and supports their freedom of movement by improving the cross-border exchange of such data to ensure continuity of healthcare. These rights include the right of natural persons or their representatives to access their personal electronic health data through electronic health data access services, the right to insert information in their own electronic health record (EHR), the right to rectification, the right to portability and the right to restrict access to their electronic health data. The rights also contribute to the achievement of the target of 100% of Union citizens having access to their electronic health records by 2030, as set in the Digital Decade policy programme. For primary use, implementing these rights under the EHDS Regulation requires concrete action, capacity-building and training, to support the digital health community, particularly public authorities, healthcare providers, and service providers, particularly Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), in the deployment of digital health services and systems that support these rights (across all the priority data categories) and that adopt the EEHRxF (European Electronic Health Record Exchange Format), taking into account the specific circumstances of different c Programme areas: DIGITAL-1 Keywords: Civil society organisations, Continuing professional training, Creation of processes and new forms of cooperation, Curricular education activities with enterprises, Data Security and Privacy, Data reuse, Digital Services and Platforms, Education, Education and Training, Europe's innovation potential, Health and Ecosystem Services, Health care, Health data, Health information, Health sciences, IT skills and competence, Identification of skills needs, Knowledge transfer, Learning outcomes, Life sciences, Privacy, Public administration, Public administration innovation, Public sector information, Public sector innovation, Quality of education/educational products, Regulation, Stakeholder management, Teaching materials, Training of trainers (multiplication), Transfer of educational results/products to new sectors, eHealth, Capacity building for healthcare providers, Cascading funding mechanism for digital health, Certified digital health service providers, Citizen health data rights, Community of practice for health data holders, Data management best practices, Digital Decade Policy Programme (2030 targets, Digital health service deployment, EEHRxF, EHDS compliance for healthcare providers, EU digital health policy, Electronic health records (EHR) access, European Electronic Health Record Exchange Format, Guidance for EHR system deployment, HDABs, Health Data Access Bodies, Health data governance, Health data holder obligations under EHDS, Health data holders, Health data interoperability, Healthcare providers, Patient-controlled health records, Primary and secondary use of health data, Public authority digital health readiness, Right to access electronic health data, Right to data portability in healthcare, Right to rectification of health data, Right to restrict health data access, Staff training in digital health systems, Toolbox for health data secondary use, Training for SMEs in digital health, Training framework for EHDS compliance